Jupiter, GRS & Io 02.02.15 - Better (but not great) conditions.

[theo]

The seeing was certainly better on the 2nd but there's still some way to go I feel to get a really good night (in my area that is). The air was stable but It's just not the seeing that gives a really crisp result. The R channel was nice but G & B were not great. So I think this image is just about the best of the night. I can't complain too much as this is a big step in the right direction as far as the seeing goes and a welcome relief to the poor conditions of the last few months.

Thanks for looking.

Pete

[sargey]

Beauty

[PhotoGav]

Excellent result Pete.

That's what I'm trying to achieve, so thank you for posting this as a benchmark for me to work towards!

[ReticMikee]

That's a cracker :-)

[Freddie]

Nice crisp shot there Pete with plenty of detail coming through.

[Pete Presland]

That's a very good image the seeing really is the key to that sort of quality.

[skybadger]

Love that. Dead jealous for an 8". How many frames were selected per channel?

[skybadger]

Love that. Dead jealous for an 8". How many frames were selected per channel?

[neil phillips]

Yeah I know what you mean Pete my sentiments exactly about the quality of the Red compared to green and blue.

Still that is really rather nice. Your best so far I think. Interestingly, I took a shot, almost exactly the same time as yours. Its uncanny, yours is showing more, But that's to be expected with a good 12" Mirror in on the action. 

Nice one Pete. At last some quality detail from you. Things are going in the right direction for many of us. But I know like me your sights are set higher. As you say its not the crispest you know you can have.  We should still enjoy the good work we are doing along the way. Superb result

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Very nice shot. Which aperture Meade ACF do you have?

[U Cyg]

That is a great shot Pete.  I know I have said it before, but I do like your processing.

Angie

[si@nite]

A good result Pete you set the bar very high as always beautifully done! 

[theo]

Love that. Dead jealous for an 8". How many frames were selected per channel?

Thanks. I was stacking at 40% for each channel on this image. I tried lower and higher percentages but his seemed about the best. That works out at round 5000 frames for R & G and about 3500 for the B channel.

Yeah I know what you mean Pete my sentiments exactly about the quality of the Red compared to green and blue.

Still that is really rather nice. Your best so far I think. Interestingly, I took a shot, almost exactly the same time as yours. Its uncanny, yours is showing more, But that's to be expected with a good 12" Mirror in on the action. 

Nice one Pete. At last some quality detail from you. Things are going in the right direction for many of us. But I know like me your sights are set higher. As you say its not the crispest you know you can have.  We should still enjoy the good work we are doing along the way. Superb result

Cheers Neil. Yes I saw your image and thought the same thing regarding the similarity and timing. I just can't quite put my finger on this sort of seeing you know, it seemed pretty stable but just wouldn't allow decent G & B images to be had, just Red. The quality difference between the channels was large here. Of course R is normally the best but I have had conditions where G is the best and even blue, you probably have seen this as well.  The variations of seeing never fail to surprise me but I just hope we get one really great night where everything falls into place before it's too late!! 

Very nice shot. Which aperture Meade ACF do you have?

Thanks Michael. Yes I forgot to add it to the text. Its a 305mm aperture.

[theo]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. Much appreciated.

Pete

[Barv]

Excellent work Pete as usual. Well done.

Regards

Harvey

[Space Cowboy]

Lovely image Pete!

[PhotoGav]

I was stacking at 40% for each channel on this image. I tried lower and higher percentages but his seemed about the best. That works out at round 5000 frames for R & G and about 3500 for the B channel.

Oh wow, that's a lot of frames! I'm going to have to ask you to expand a little on the tech side of the capture please. What frame rate were you getting, how long a capture for a single filter, what exposure, gain, gamma, etc etc etc???! I appreciate that The Colonel might not want to reveal his blend of secret herbs and spices, but trust me your recipe will taste completely different once I bung it all in my deep fat fryer!

[Kokatha man]

Good work Pete..!

The situation with a good red & less than wished-for greens & blues (especially blues) seems pretty endemic bro...

[theo]

Oh wow, that's a lot of frames! I'm going to have to ask you to expand a little on the tech side of the capture please. What frame rate were you getting, how long a capture for a single filter, what exposure, gain, gamma, etc etc etc???! I appreciate that The Colonel might not want to reveal his blend of secret herbs and spices, but trust me your recipe will taste completely different once I bung it all in my deep fat fryer!

Hi Gav, I'll try and remember as I don't have access to the files currently.

So for all filters I used a 3 min capture. This was with a histogram fill of around 70%. Settings to achieve this were an approx gain of 80 with gamma always set to default of 50. This equates to around 15ms exposure for the R&G channels and around 22ms for the B. This gives a frame rate of roughly 67fps for R&G and 45 for B.

This isn't a set recipe though as I change according to the conditions but should give you some idea. Also reduced aperture will not gather as much light of course so you will have to account for this and tweak the settings to keep a decent histo.

Pete

[theo]

Cheers Harvey, Stuart and Darryl!!

Pete

[PhotoGav]

Hi Gav, I'll try and remember as I don't have access to the files currently.

So for all filters I used a 3 min capture. This was with a histogram fill of around 70%. Settings to achieve this were an approx gain of 80 with gamma always set to default of 50. This equates to around 15ms exposure for the R&G channels and around 22ms for the B. This gives a frame rate of roughly 67fps for R&G and 45 for B.

This isn't a set recipe though as I change according to the conditions but should give you some idea. Also reduced aperture will not gather as much light of course so you will have to account for this and tweak the settings to keep a decent histo.

Pete

Pete, that's brilliant, thank you. It gives me a few pointers to try fiddling around and about with next time. Fingers crossed that tomorrow night gives another clear one, ideally with some seeing to suit!